Polish Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek claimed that Poland should be receiving the biggest share of subsidies when it becomes EU member.

Moreover, 30 percent of all available EU aid should be spent on the current accession states when they join, he pointed out. He also proposed an increase of the funds for structural and regional aid; both Diamantopoulou and Barnier also supported this increase. Together with other accession-state representatives, Buzek dismissed Barnier's proposal for double standards in the distribution of aid. Nevertheless, the EU Commissioners identified some problems with the planning of a clear reform strategy at present. To start with, there is still no timetable or deadlines for the accession of new members. As a result, it is impossible to predict which and how many candidates will have joined by 2006 when the new EU budget comes out. In this respect, Agenda 2000 is based on the assumption of a maximum of six new members by 2006, while the Commission is currently working with up to ten new EU states by the end of this period. Still, the Commission insists that Agenda 2000 will suffice for cohesion policies until 2006. Moreover, raising the expenditures for structural operations will incur additional costs for the largest net payers in the EU such as Germany, France, the UK and Italy. Thus, accession negotiations are bound to become even more complicated and difficult to push forward as the issue of distribution of structural and regional aid becomes more imminent.